Christmas Eve Festivities!

I know Christmas is really coming soon when Amber and Tony arrive with their kids (they arrived the afternoon before Christmas Eve Eve this year). It's so much fun to see Nia and Jacoby with our kids...

Nev is proud to watch her shows/dvds with Jacoby

Can't you see the admiration here?! Willem soaks it up :)

Christmas Eve Eve, we were busy,busy....shopping for Christmas Eve dinner, giving the kids baths, drying hair all pretty for the next day (Nia was mesmerized as I dried her hair and Nev loved it too), plus I gave Will, Cade and Chad haircuts. Phew! (I should add that the night before we got to go to a Duck basketball game all together which was lots of fun :)

And, of-course, there's lots of playtime!

And cousin bonding!

Around noon on Christmas Eve, we went to Opa and Kathleen's house to prepare dinner and spend time together with all of us

Of-course that means picture-taking...here are three of James (my bro) and Jenn's gorgeous girls!

 Plus there's lots of food prep though it's not too tough as our tradition is a meal with soup, lots of yummy meats and cheeses, jam, Dutch sprinkles, rolls and pastries.

Dad and Kathleen's pretty tree

A family Christmas picture in the beautiful weather we had!

And another family pic!

This one is too cute to pass up!

Me and Chad

Nev and me!

After eating and visiting we left for Christmas Eve Mass and did have to remind our kids why we celebrate Christmas as it was hard to pull themselves away from their cousins and hard to wait for presents!

But alas, after a very nice Christmas Eve service we returned to open gifts with cousins!

Roman, Cade, Pascal and Jacoby

Jenn and James

Duane and Mary had joined us for dinner in the afternoon but Duane was too nervous to stay late for presents with baby Tucker due ANYTIME so they returned to Portland and opened with us via GoggleChat; as you can imagine with them, this led to some good laughs!

More cousins: Frances and Carsten

Nev loved the Dora slippers she received!

Mariah with her new moccasins

Nev loved opening presents and loved helping others open gifts :)

Willem getting a Bruder tractor

And Opa checking it out with him

Elle was so appreciative of everything she received

Adorable Nia showing off the purse we got her

My bro David with Amy and Carsten

Nia and Nev playing with their new toys

Such a sweetie with her leap frog alphabet game and Dora slippers

Opa and Kathleen with Jacoby

A glimpse into the mayhem of unwrapping gifts at Opa's house!

Opa and Kathleen with grandkids!

Perhaps my favorite part of the evening...a massage from my hubby! Goofy pic I know :) 

Love my girl and my new vest :)

Jenn and her girls (just missing Jevon)

A sweet one of Amber and Nia

Roman is a great big cousin to Cade

As if we didn't have enough excitement for the day, when we returned from my Dad's house (at 10 pm), the kids opened one gift from each other at home before all heading to bed (Chad and I had a little work to do, of-course ;)...

The boys being goofy/serious ;)

All ready for Christmas Day!